title: Metagenomics for NoV surveillance: Baseline Survey sample sequencing
description: For Norovirus (NoV) genomic surveillance, metagenomics sequencing of viral nucleotides captured by VirCapSeq-VERT probe set, was performed. This metagenomics approach, in theory agnostic, offers the great advantage of unbiased detection of NoV, including the detection of novel NoV recombinants. Samples come from three different sequencing sets - Baseline Survey (BLS) samples, Outbreak-related (OB) samples, and two synthetic Test Set samples (TSS1 and TSS2). The European Baseline Survey (BLS) of norovirus in oysters was undertaken by EFSA (2016-18). From November 2016 to October 2018, samples of BMS (flat oysters Ostrea edulis, Pacific oysters Crassostrea gigas, and Portuguese oysters Crassostrea angulata) were collected every two months from sampling locations in two points in the food chain (production areas and dispatch centers) in 13 oyster-producing countries in the EU. Only samples that were positive for NoV GI and/or GII were considered for analysis.